Europe — a lonely and treacherous place

German historian Heinrich Maetzke, writing in the Washington Times expreses his profound distress over the course of German policy towards the U.S. Maetzke doubts that Germany can discard the alliance with the U.S. and still leave Franco-German relations and the ediice of Euopean integration intact. He argues that those relations and that integration have flourished due to the alliance with Washington. Weakening that alliance will lead to a “struggle for direction and dominance in Europe” and to a diminished desire for integration on the part of the Eastern Europeans. Matezke concludes by warning that, without the involvement of the U.S. “Europe can be such a lonely and treacherous place.”